Vs. Manu, Parker becomes like him

LONDON — Manu Ginobili said he was wishing Tony Parker’s shots would miss. “And in the beginning,” he said, “that felt awkward.”

And Parker?

“I never wished he would miss,” he said.

Parker smiled. In beating Argentina, he was still rooting for his guy. Parker liked everything about this.

It was also an attitude that fit with his day. He didn’t need to beat Ginobili, exactly. Parker needed to show his country some success on the Olympic level and that he could do this with passion and commitment, just the way Ginobili has with his national team.

So Tuesday was a first for him — just as it was a first playing against Ginobili.

Parker and Ginobili gave each other a quick hug before the tip, but they did that with all the starters. They went at each other, too, as if they had never met before.

Once Parker sprinted on a fast break, and Ginobili tried to take the charge. Both crashed to the ground.

Ginobili got up quickly, but not to help up Parker. He went to an official to see why he had been called for the block.

“That’s the way it is,” Boris Diaw said. “When I play against my best friends, they aren’t my best friends for a while.”

But Diaw has never spent 10 years on an NBA team with a friend. He’s never won three titles with one, either, and then there’s the angle that made this story what it was.

Given all that time together, what’s the chance such teammates would have never played against each other outside of practice?

Maybe that’s why Parker and Ginobili said what they said afterward. Most would have pushed away the questions, answering as Diaw did, and Ginobili began that way by saying he’d played against his brothers before.

“But after 800 games together,” he admitted, “this was something different.”

And from Parker: “It was special. And kind of weird.”

Parker didn’t shoot well (Ginobili was wishing against him, remember), but Parker also didn’t force anything. There was a time a few years ago, with his ego in the balance, when he would have.

Instead, he kept running the Spurs-centric offense he’s helped install on the French team, and at the end he made a few plays to help his team pull away. A trademark drive, splitting Ginobili and Luis Scola with about four minutes left, created room.

France also relied on one of the better Olympic defenses. The United States is clearly superior, and the Russians have more length at the rim. But the French have athletes, as well as two players who had success staying in front of Ginobili.

Nicolas Batum, who the Spurs once wanted to draft. And Nando De Colo, who the Spurs did.

France’s 71-64 win was somewhat of an upset, but not because of talent. The French haven’t been as solid as an Argentina core that has had the feel of family. That’s where Ginobili’s passion comes from; nothing means more to him than playing with people such as Scola.

Ginobili grew up with his teammates, and that’s a contrast. Parker grew up with the Spurs. He would return to his national team as an NBA starter, sometimes facing pettiness.

For example: Years ago, he was benched in the name of seniority.

The French knew he was successful in San Antonio, but only through highlights. They also didn’t sense he was there for them. He came to Paris in the summers vacationing the way Americans do.

But Parker is more like Ginobili than most think. He’s as close to Diaw as Ginobili is to Scola, for example, and he cares enough about his national team that he would someday like to be president of it.

Years ago, Chris Paul asked Parker for one of his jerseys to hang in his house. One hangs there today: A French one.

“Their national team in France,” Paul said recently, “means everything to him.”